AuthorTopic: Goodbye to an old friend (Read 3725 times)

I used to drive a citroen. Citroens are cool because they pioneered airsuspension. And airsuspension does exactly what you would expect, namely like driving on air. It's comfortable, it's smooth, it's a pleasure to drive. With all the electronics even back then, they could improve the handling of the car by controlling the pressure. And if you'd ever find yourself in a situation where you'd need more bottom clearance, well, even that was possible with the flick of a switch.

Then one day I had to drive it to the dealer. The lease-contract had ended and I had to return it from whence it came. It was a sad day as it was hard to say goodbye to the trusty comfort of an old friend. That day I told myself over and over again, that it was simply 1 step back to advance 2 steps forward in some not too distant future.

And gosh do I love self fulfilling prophecy. So at some point in that future I actually was able to purchase a new car from my own hard earned moneys, and off I went in my new sporty looking but rather small convertible. It was brilliant, it was fun, it was totally the opposite of air-suspension, but a pleasure it was none-the-less.

It became my new trusty old friend for the next 10 years. Unfortunately, today marks the end of those 10 years. At the brink of 120.000 km I have again said goodbye to a dear comrade, to a partner in crime on my photographic endeavours at times. It was a brilliant partnership by the way, because the car would always elicit smiles and attract attention, which, at the same time, allowed me to enter off-limit areas without much trouble.

Well then, here's to you, you cool hipsta vehicle. May you provide fun and pleasure in someone else's life, may you be caressed to the end of your days. And when your final lap commences, may you feel triumph and then rest in pieces.

Very nice portrait of your friend. We traded our old XR3i when it was eight; at fourteen it was still around, rusted from neglectful/broke? local new buyer and giving me pangs of conscience every time we passed it in the replacement XRi.

When that needed replacement, at around twelve years of age, I bought a Fiesta thinking it was all I needed. First big shopping revealed the error of guessing size in a showroom. I rushed back to the dealer, collected the old car and ran two, paying for numerous paint jobs and additional insurance over about a year, until I pulled myself together, choked the hell out of my conscience and sold the old thing privately. I've only seen it once since, because the owner is a student in Palma though his home is here, not a klik away. Of course, none of the people looking after the old cars can be considered real owners: first blood dictates spiritual ownership.

Now if you were a true American you would tell us that you have now gone into debt buying a brand new Hummer. You would justify this by saying that you are preparing for the end of the world. I'd love to have a Citroen here in California. Instead I drive a 2000 Honda Civic with an impressive bite from the drivers seat where a bear had mistaken it for a bag of marshmallows. I'm sorry about you lose.

A mere 120000 km? That's a baby!My "new" car is a 2000 Camry that I bought used a couple of years ago with over 100,000 miles on it. It now has well over 200,000 KM on it, and I hope to have it for several more years.

A car that wasn't exactly build to last but it should probably do another 60K km before anything major is required. A car which incidentally has never been available in the US. Not surprisingly, since the average Hummer will drive right over it and never even feel a bump in the road. It's that small.

Then I also live in a country where they use salt to de-ice the roads during the winter which generally changes the lifespan equation. But most importantly I only drove a mere 2400km (1500miles) the past year, and when I open my wallet Jerry Maguire style, it just returns a faint echo of the exclamation mark that belongs to the sentence "show me the money".

So, when I added 1+1 and the answer remained zero...

Attached shot with a 15mm fisheye and distortion correction. The 10-22 wasn't available yet. The pinhole experience of an 80% viewfinder on APS-C was easily good enough to hide the fact that I had a focus problem, but I like the shot. I also realise this is exactly the kind of shot that requires an additional lady in certain state of clothing, but I am afraid you have to imagine one in their yourself. Here's a car joke to help you along:

I used to drive a citroen. Citroens are cool because they pioneered airsuspension. And airsuspension does exactly what you would expect, namely like driving on air. It's comfortable, it's smooth, it's a pleasure to drive. With all the electronics even back then, they could improve the handling of the car by controlling the pressure. And if you'd ever find yourself in a situation where you'd need more bottom clearance, well, even that was possible with the flick of a switch.

Then one day I had to drive it to the dealer. The lease-contract had ended and I had to return it from whence it came. It was a sad day as it was hard to say goodbye to the trusty comfort of an old friend. That day I told myself over and over again, that it was simply 1 step back to advance 2 steps forward in some not too distant future.

And gosh do I love self fulfilling prophecy. So at some point in that future I actually was able to purchase a new car from my own hard earned moneys, and off I went in my new sporty looking but rather small convertible. It was brilliant, it was fun, it was totally the opposite of air-suspension, but a pleasure it was none-the-less.

It became my new trusty old friend for the next 10 years. Unfortunately, today marks the end of those 10 years. At the brink of 120.000 km I have again said goodbye to a dear comrade, to a partner in crime on my photographic endeavours at times. It was a brilliant partnership by the way, because the car would always elicit smiles and attract attention, which, at the same time, allowed me to enter off-limit areas without much trouble.

Well then, here's to you, you cool hipsta vehicle. May you provide fun and pleasure in someone else's life, may you be caressed to the end of your days. And when your final lap commences, may you feel triumph and then rest in pieces.

I shall remember you.

Very nice Goodbye!

There's still a few Smart Roadsters around here but CitroŽns are, of course, more common.

I never understood the psychology of Smart/Merc: why in blazes discontinue a pretty car with some style but continue to produce those horrid little family(midget) models? And the prices! Madness.

I used to have a Fiat X1/9 which turned out to be underpowered and not what it looked to be on the surface, which I'd thought was a mini-Ferrari. (It looked beautiful, honest.) Worse, the balance weights on the wheels came factory-clamped onto the rims, creating, with the icy roads of which Oscar spoke, cathodic disintegration as in boats. Those weights should have been glued, insulated, not squeezed to the metal. In less than two years of Scotland's best and clement weather I required four new wheels. I didn't buy, I sold the whole thing. And that's where the Smart comes in: had it still been available two years ago, I'd probably have bought one just out of fondness for Targa tops, instead of the Fiesta that I did buy! In fairness, the Fiesta is a 1.6 diesel and runs on air. It is also pretty hot on acceleration from mid-speeds up, though not from standing starts, bags of torque, more than from my old 1.8 Escort which went quite quickly when the need was there.

There's still a few Smart Roadsters around here but CitroŽns are, of course, more common.

Oh, yeah. And what citroens!

I just came back from the land of swiss and again I have seen a 2CV merrily keeping up with traffic on the Lausanne-Zurich freeway. Four years ago, I spotted a 2CV Sahara around Neuchatel and was overtaken by a Special @ 130km/h near Lichtenstein. You guys love your cits, I'll give you that.

The logic of the Smart is to have a fun lightweight car to chuck around corners on a windy b-road or Switzerland.

The demi-luxo-barge is the car of choice for mob middle management and parlamentarians of banana republics hence it's guaranteed success in perpetuity.

I just came back from the land of swiss and again I have seen a 2CV merrily keeping up with traffic on the Lausanne-Zurich freeway. Four years ago, I spotted a 2CV Sahara around Neuchatel and was overtaken by a Special @ 130km/h near Lichtenstein. You guys love your cits, I'll give you that.

The logic of the Smart is to have a fun lightweight car to chuck around corners on a windy b-road or Switzerland.The demi-luxo-barge is the car of choice for mob middle management and parlamentarians of banana republics hence it's guaranteed success in perpetuity.

I seem to remember that was also the logic of the Mercedes Elk A Class.

If you ever tested a car with a short wheel-base you'd realise they suck: are not stable; offer a very uncomfortable ride and induce real nausea within fifteen minutes. Especially on those winding B roads. It's the same principle that makes small boats less comfortable than larger ones.

Another iconic classic. Unfortunately, the only time I see them these days if at all, is on the back of a truck, hopefully on the way to a restoration project but might just as easily be straight to the landfill...

I seem to remember that was also the logic of the Mercedes Elk A Class.

If you ever tested a car with a short wheel-base you'd realise they suck:

I believe he was referring to the Roadster, not the sneaker shoe. The Roadster was indeed meant for the curves, where it can pull a relatively "massive" 1 G lateral. I drove both a Triumph Spitfire and a Lotus Elise (but unfortunately never owned either), and I have come to the conclusion that the driving experience was based on the combination of the two.

But only the driving experience. In everything else it feels exactly what it is. PlasticÖ

ÖI just came back from the land of swiss and again I have seen a 2CV merrily keeping up with traffic on the Lausanne-Zurich freeway. Four years ago, I spotted a 2CV Sahara around Neuchatel and was overtaken by a Special @ 130km/h near Lichtenstein. You guys love your cits, I'll give you that.Ö

CitroŽn 2CVs are far from extinct as you noticed. A friend of mine just purchased a fully renovated Charleston. There's a large business based on renovation of 2CV or Renault 4 (and other old cars).That being said, I wouldn't travel often from ZŁrich to Lausanne in a 2CVÖ

Another iconic classic. Unfortunately, the only time I see them these days if at all, is on the back of a truck, hopefully on the way to a restoration project but might just as easily be straight to the landfill...

That's the best piece of praise for the Fiat ever heard! That anything from the late 70s is still around is bordering on the miraculous! When I got rid of mine, I wanted to get an MG to replace it; they wouldn't take the Fiat in part-exchange, and the same happened when I looked at the ugly TR7 (perhaps saved me more aesthetic pain that way) and I had to return to the Fiat dealer and buy an Alfa instead, the only deal open.

The X1/9 was a beautiful concept, far more roomy inside than anyone would think, and I managed to transport cameras and two studio flash units in the front baggage space, along with stands and 'pods. I could easily manage to take down and stow the Targa top by myself as well as put it back on. Probelms, other than the wheels? Yes, once it died because a cable running through the rear bulkhead separating engine bay from passengers was cut because the car didn't have a rubber grommet to protect the cable. On a trip from Glasgow to Derby to see a printer, the silencer burst and the resulting heat on the base of the little rear luggage bay melted the rubberized mat... though the printer tried his best, not a dealer in Derby could offer a replacement silencer, so we had to drive all the way back in fear of fire or total deafness. But I still have fond memories of that little thing, and wish I could have it here, in Spain.

I seem to remember that was also the logic of the Mercedes Elk A Class.

If you ever tested a car with a short wheel-base you'd realise they suck: are not stable; offer a very uncomfortable ride and induce real nausea within fifteen minutes. Especially on those winding B roads. It's the same principle that makes small boats less comfortable than larger ones.

Rob C

Ha. You, my friend are of a different school of thought. Driving is like sex. If you think of comfort when you're doing it, you are not enjoying it. I drive and enjoy short wheelbase cars for everything you hate (not much can get me out of my clapped out 205GTI). Nothing like the fear of liftoff oversteer in the back of your mind to keep your foot firmly planted on the fun pedal. I have managed to get quite a few dealers sick on some of my test drives.

But you are not totally right. Renault has made some brilliant, exquisitely refined sport hatchbacks with short wheelbase, lots of fun, and none of the nausea inducing manners. Try an R26. Even my wife who doesn't give a toss about cars was impressed with its manners.

Ha. You, my friend are of a different school of thought. Driving is like sex. If you think of comfort when you're doing it, you are not enjoying it. I drive and enjoy short wheelbase cars for everything you hate (not much can get me out of my clapped out 205GTI). Nothing like the fear of liftoff oversteer in the back of your mind to keep your foot firmly planted on the fun pedal. I have managed to get quite a few dealers sick on some of my test drives.

But you are not totally right. Renault has made some brilliant, exquisitely refined sport hatchbacks with short wheelbase, lots of fun, and none of the nausea inducing manners. Try an R26. Even my wife who doesn't give a toss about cars was impressed with its manners.